Ds's 5th birthday tea party - what do you think

[Curlybrunette]

Hi all,

wondered what you thought of this idea for ds's birthday. We've managed to talk him out of a big party have promised him wii games instead so are going to have a small tea party at home instead.

The problem is it's already working out not so small. With my 2 ds's, their 2 cousins, ds's 3 best friends, 1 of them's younger sibling, and that's without a couple of others he'd really like to invite we're already up to 8 children.

My house isn't tiny but that's a lot of boys charging around the place, plus parents so I was thinking about setting up a small treasure hunt near the house. Maybe a 15 minute route, with plenty of adults supervising of course, then back to the house for a drink and some sort of party game. For food I was thinking about letting the kids make pizza's; I could buy the bases and just set them out on the kitchen table, toppings in the middle and they can stand and make the pizza's (I wouldn't have big enough table/enough chairs for them to sit), play for a bit whilst they cook, then set out a picnic blanket on the living room floor for them to eat pizza. Another game (or just let the kids destroy my house play for a bit) sing happy birthday, eat cake, party bag, children go home.

Does this sound:
a) fun for the children
b) manageable to keep the kids amused and perhaps save my house from being trashed. The children are all pretty good but that many children all excited could easily descend into chaos I reckon
c) like it would take up a normal party amount of time, no more than 2 hours

x

An easy treasure hunt we've done before is a Scavenger Hunt using digital cameras. Give them a list (at that age, even lots of pictures) they have to take a photo of. Set a time limit and first team back with all the photos or the team with the most wins. Get them to find things like, a blue front door, red car, number plate with an X, bird etc. Very easy to set up - have even used with younger teenagers (obviously without the adult supervision). Set party for 1 1/2 to 2 hours max! Have found with DS's that 5 is the oldest for a party at home, age 6 was not good. Different though with my DD's - guess the difference between boys and girls. Pizza making a brilliant idea.

That sounds great fun Frazmum thank you
x

We bought a halloween treasure hunt and did it around the block and it was fab - though like you said plenty of adults to keep an eye on them, and it took about 15 mins. The same people also do treasure hunts for pirates, dinosaurs and safari - see the pirate treasure hunt

You could do a craft activity too if you wanted to keep them from destroying the place!

Hope it goes well!